Offers and New Customer Experience - Educational resources would be beneficial
The online trading industry has become more competitive than ever before and online brokers are looking to attract new customers to their service by including a welcome offer or a new customer experience that is designed to make the beginning phase of your career as easy as possible. With Macquarie Online Trading Australia, you won’t find any welcome offers listed within their service and there aren’t any educational resources available to independent traders.
This is far below average when compared to other brokers within the online trading scene. You will find an option to use a financial adviser and this could make the start of your career a little easier. It would be great to see Macquarie Online Trading include a learning service and/or a welcome offer in the future. Be sure to check out our
EasyMarkets review Australia
page to see how other operators manage to compare.
Macquarie Online Trading ETF
Macquarie Online Trading Highlights
- Invest in ETFs, ETOs, and Warrants
- Fees set at $19.95 or 0.12%
- Ideal for AU-based ETF trades
Usability - Quite a lot to take in
In terms of usability, the Macquarie Online Trading Australia site is fairly cluttered with the full extent of the Macquarie Group service. It was quite difficult to navigate to the various sections of their service and the details listed on the page were not very insightful. The website is designed with a tab structure in the header and you will be able to find all the basics of the service by browsing through the single page that is put on offer. This is also below industry-standard as many brokers tend to dive into detail surrounding their online service.
In terms of trading platform usability, the only mention Macquarie Online Trading Australia makes towards their platform is that it is available on mobile devices and MacOS and Windows. Besides this, there is not much indication of the quality of their platform or the ease of use. If you are looking for a more detailed broker offer, then head to our
Markets.com review
where we take a close look at all that is made available by the online broker.
Accounts - Easy to sign up and get started
If you have decided to open an account with Macquarie Online Trading Australia then you can do so by heading to their sign up page. Once you arrive at this page you will find all of their available account types offered here. As usual, you will be able to open an individual account, a joint account, trust or self-managed super fund account, a company or business account and an incorporated association or bodies account. Each online broker offers these options and the choice will depend on your personal circumstances.
In terms of individual account options, you will not find a variety in what Macquarie Online Trading has to offer. The online broker operates primarily as an investment banking company and keeps the offer relatively uniform to all interested customers. This is about standard when it comes to competition within the online broker industry and you won’t need much else if you are simply looking to invest with Macquarie Online Trading. You can head to our
OctaFX Australia
page if you are on the market for a different broker offer.
Fees – No account management or inactivity fees!
Each and every online broker will have some sort of fee structure in place and our team of experts evaluate the fees compared to other operators within the industry to determine if they are below or above the average on the market. With Macquarie Online Trading review Australia, we found that the broker offers share trading from $19.95 per or 0.12% of the trade value. There are no account management fees or inactivity fees. This is a little above what other brokers on the scene are offering, however, it is quite impressive that there are no fees related to your account besides the trade fees.
Macquarie Online Trading also offers an award-winning Cash Management Account and this provides you with professional advice regarding your trades. You are always able to contact the online broker if you would like to have any queries addressed relative to their service. With Macquarie Online Trading Australia, you may be able to diversify your investment portfolio significantly.
When it comes to trading platforms, many online brokers tend to go with already established software that is available on the market. There are a number of software packages such as Iress, MetaTrader and cTrader, however, Macquarie Online Trading has opted to develop their own trading platform that is made available to their customers. This is a fairly risky business as you are bound to have plenty of development issues when you are developing your own software package. Our team of experts put the platform to the test and while it does exactly what is required of an online trading platform, it would be great to see the addition of analytical tools included within the software.
Despite the tools available, you will be able to complete all of your trades using the platform and the design is relatively modern when compared with other packages out there. You can also make use of any mobile device when you are looking to make some trades as the software has also been optimised for the mobile experience. If you would like to take a look at what other brokers within the industry offer in terms of trading platforms, head to our
AxiTrader review Australia.
Payments - A choice of payment options
In order to complete your trades online, you will also need to fund your account using the variety of payment methods that are supported by Macquarie Online Trading. Depending on what payment method you prefer, you might find that the service doesn’t manage to check your requirements when it comes to this section. With Macquarie Online Trading Australia, you will be able to fund your account online or over the phone, keep in mind that phone trades are charged at a tremendous $49.95 or 0.3% which is incredibly high.
You can fund your account with the online broker by making use of EFTs, BPAY, Direct debit transfers or cheque deposits. This range of payment methods is fairly disappointing when compared to the variety of methods that other brokers have been able to add to their service. That being said, most customers should be able to deposit their funds using this range of payments.
Customer Service - Contact by phone and post only
An online service is only as good as the customer service that they manage to provide. With most of your transactions being conducted online, it is important to know that support is available if you require it. With Macquarie Online Trading Australia, you will only be able to make use of their FAQ section. Each time you are looking for an answer to a question, you will be redirected to another page entirely. This FAQ section certainly falls below the industry average that other brokers have managed to put on offer.
To contact the team you will also only be able to use the dedicated phone number that is provided. Our experts have looked and failed to find any clues towards an online chat feature that is crucial within today’s industry. You can always use their postal address if you are looking to forward any queries or you can make use of the email address that is provided on their website. If you would like to take a look at a different broker offer, then head to our
Fusion Markets review
to determine what other customer service teams are put on offer.
Regulation and Deposit Insurance - A fully-licensed and trusted broker
The final contributor to our Macquarie Online Trading ranking would be the regulations that the broker has to abide by in order to offer their service to Australian residents. Macquarie Online Trading Australia has managed to obtain an Australian Financial Services (AFS) License which is awarded by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). This is relatively standard when compared to other brokers within the industry and you can be certain that their service has to abide by set regulations.
In terms of deposit insurance, the entire website at Macquarie Online Trading is encrypted using Transport Layer Security which is also standard among online service providers. That means that all your network traffic will be encrypted and your data is protected while you are using their service. Funds also need to be stored in segregated bank accounts to abide by the set regulations.
Macquarie Online Trading ETF
ETF Trade Offer - A diverse offering from Macquarie
Our Macquarie Online Trading review Australia found that the online broker offers customers the opportunity to invest using ETFs, ETOs, Warrants and Managed Funds (via mFund). You will be able to diversify your investment portfolio using these instruments.
Trading Costs - Relatively high fees
In terms of costs associated with their ETF instrument, you will still need to pay the relative transaction fees which are set at $19.95 or 0.12%, which cost is higher between the two. This is quite high when compared to other offers available on the market.
Exchanges and Trading - Trade markets listed on the ASE
You will be able to trade ETFs only with markets that are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. You might be able to find some of your preferred stock options included here but to compete with other offers on the market, the broker would need to include other exchanges.
Product Summary - A fair offering from Macquarie
The ETF trading offer with Macquarie Online Trading Australia is fairly average when compared to other online brokers but you should be able to complete any trades you are interested in with their service.
Macquarie Online Trading Stocks
Stocks Trade Offer - Trade any stocks listed on the ASX
Macquarie Online Trading offers its customers the opportunity to invest with any stock options that are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
Trading Costs - High trading fees on stocks
You will also need to pay their relatively high trading fee of $19.95 whenever you complete a trade with Macquarie Online Trading Australia. Be sure to keep this in mind when budgeting your investments.
Exchanges and Trading - Trade stocks listed on the ASE
The only exchange that is available within the Macquarie Online Trading stock trading service would be options that are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. This is below average when compared to other brokers.
Product Summary - Great for investing in AU companies
The stock trading offer will be suitable to customers looking to invest in Australian companies but you won’t be able to trade with any other exchanges.
Overall Conclusion - A somewhat average brokerage
This brings us to the conclusion with Macquarie Online Trading rating Australia. The service is perhaps aimed at customers who make use of the asset manager’s service but when compared with the range of other brokers on the scene today, their service offer falls relatively short. You could be incurring relatively high fees when transacting online and you will be fairly limited in terms of account options, trading platforms and available payment methods. You might want to browse through some other reviews available here at Wetten Australia if you are in search of an online broker.
